Watmore ‘relishing being back’

Duncan Watmore will start for Sunderland in their Checkatrade Trophy knockout clash with Notts County tonight.

The forward has been out for a year with a second ACL knee injury but the 24-year-old will make his first team return at the Stadium of Light.

Watmore played just under an hour in an U23 defeat to Middlesbrough last Monday and will now step up his comeback against the League Two side.

Sunderland assistant manager James Fowler said: “Duncan is in the squad. He will start, it is important for him to get some more game time, we will see how he feels at half-time and monitor from there. It is really good for him to be back involved in competitive action.

“Duncan is somebody that loves football and training. With the injury problems he has had for the last couple of seasons he is relishing being back involved.

“In terms of his attitude and his application to training, he is always bang on and he has that little bit more excitement given the hard work he has put in.

“He is desperate to be back out on the pitch.

“Duncan is one we can see as being a big player for us, but it is important we see the longer term picture as well. It is important we allow him the time that he needs that he is feeling 100 per cent physically and mentally.

“It is obviously a different tempo and expectation for league games than it maybe is for a Checkatrade Trophy game.”

Watmore played 57 minutes last week as the U23s lost 3-1 to Middlesbrough.

Fowler said: “At the start of the game we thought we needed to change his position to involve him a bit more but the game settled down and he did everything we expected he would.”